Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is the third installment in the Prince of Persia series by Ubisoft & it's the last part of the Sands of Time trilogy. It's a third person fantasy action-adventure game with great gameplay and storyline.

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is set in a time period which is few weeks after the previous game (Prince of Persia: Warrior Within). This game is set in Persia; the motherland of our protagonist, The Prince. Most of the game is set in Babylon, the capital of Persia &amp; Prince's home. In this game you'll visit from the city's sewer system to the beautiful hanging gardens of Babylon.

In this game the camera features are same as previous instalments', except that now you can use the "landscape camera" in selected places only.

There is no change of protagonist in this game, that means we still have our beloved prince.
This game's one part of the free form fighting is almost identical to the previous game, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. But in this game you will also have to take control of a darker side of the Prince (known as the "Dark Prince"), who's fighting style is totally different from the Prince we know. His main weapon is a chain and he is a master wielder of that. This adds another dimension to the already good enough fighting mechanism of the franchise. Here is how the Dark Prince looks.

The Dark Prince

The parkour mechanism has been enhanced in this game. There are plenty of new parkour moves added but ropes are gone now. You'll have to use your dagger in parkour also, you can stab it into some plates in the wall to hang onto them. This will aid wall run, jumping, climbing &amp; dropping. You can now directly jump and grab the beam over the beam you're standing on, the Prince can now jump diagonally from horizontal wall runs because of shutters, one can now use the vertical narrow space between two walls to climb up or down, the Prince can now sit &amp; move on top of poles. And this is not it. The Dark Prince has his own moves also, along with all of these. You can use his chain to jump &amp; grab a high-hanging pole to swing with it. It's somewhat like swinging with ropes. During horizontal wall runs you can use it to grab a high-hanging lamp to increase the distance of the run.

Almost all of the fighting moves from the previous game are retained in this game &amp; the combo move sequences for the Prince are same as previous game's. So if you have mastered Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, you'll not have much problems in this game. Just the enemies can now block your combo moves during combat. Because you'll not have a lethal weapon along with a strong sword in this game. Instead, you could have a lethal weapon along with a weak dagger. But, the dagger isn't actually that "weak". It may not be a good weapon for melee combat but it has some serious powers stored within it. Yes, you got it right. It's the "Dagger of Time", from the first game in this series (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time). But Ubisoft has changed the looks of it, this is how the dagger looks now.

The Dagger of Time

In the early stages of the game your main weapon is a normal dagger. But soon you'll get the Dagger of Time, which is your main weapon in the rest of the game. So that means there are no weapon upgrades available. Though you'll get a very strong sword (powerful enough to finish any enemy with one blow, except bosses) along with the magical dagger at the ending stages of the game.

But, you'll also have to take control of the Dark Prince. Who is a stronger, faster &amp; uglier(it's the Prince's thought, not mine) version of the Prince. Prince's voice also changes while he is in this form. In this form your life will go down automatically, you'll have to collect some Sands of Time in regular intervals to stay alive.

The Dark Prince is a master warrior of a different fighting style. His main weapon is a chain (although he holds it in his left hand). This chain is not only for combat but it affects "Speed Kills" (I'll discuss this later), parkour &amp; some more gameplay features also.
When you're playing as the Dark Prince you'll face a lot more enemies than what you face in the normal form. And most times there will be no scope for speed kills. But his chain is a powerful weapon &amp; his life gets refreshed after killing a enemy. So it's actually easier to fight in this form. The combo sequences for Dark Prince are not same with the Prince's, in fact they are totally different. There are many awesome chain moves to pull off in combat &amp; they're not that difficult to learn. Fighting with Dark Prince is really enjoyable but don't forget to use the special powers of the dagger during these fights.

The Dark Prince fighting with some enemies

As usual, you can control time in this game. But this time with the Dagger of Time not with the amulet (you'll have to play the game to find out what happened to the amulet &amp; how the dagger came back). There are some special Sands of Time attacks, which can ground all the enemies (&amp; finish some) and break all the nearby items (you can get sand clouds by breaking objects &amp; secondary weapons can be found by breaking any weapon's rack) with a single blow. But those special powers are few in quantity if compared to the previous games in the series. Especially, I missed the power "Ravages of Time", which was cool and pretty handy at times.

Well, there are no benefits of the Dagger of Time over the amulet, except that you can use this to silently kill your enemies! Yes, I'm talking about stealth combat. This concept brought stealth in the gameplay of Prince of Persia franchise. In this game you'll have two ways to play; one, go in a brawl with the enemies or two, approach silently &amp; unseen, then take each enemy out one by one. The process of killing with stealth (or special fighting sequences during boss fights) is called "Speed Kill". To execute a Speed Kill, you'll have to approach a enemy from behind (silently &amp; unseen) and when the screen gets a white glair type effect press the assigned button for wielding the secondary weapon. This will start a fighting sequence where the Prince will move automatically &amp; you'll have to wield the dagger when it flairs/glows. Speed killing enemies is fun &amp; it makes boss battles more dramatic/cinematic. This is also easy to learn. People who like stealth will surely enjoy this &amp; the people who aren't patient enough for stealth can go in direct combat with enemies, but that is the harder choice.

Prince going to speed kill a enemy

The enemy models are totally changed from the previous game, though some enemies in this game are similar in appearance to some enemies from the previous game. Number of boss battles have been decreased, there're only 4 (or 5) of them. In this game, archers are added in the enemy arsenal. But the Prince cannot pick their bows up after killing them. All of the enemies can block your attacks, if you just fight by standing in one place. So it means you'll have to make good use of the Prince's agility &amp; dexterity to become a master sword fighter in this game.

The map system is gone now, which wasn't that helpful. The quantity of the content of the artwork gallery has been increased. The gallery has artworks from all 3 games in this series. This time around you don't have to find and break some hidden crates to unlock the artworks; instead you'll have to collect enough "Sand Credit" to unlock them.

All traps from the previous game exist in this game with some new traps also. These time trap avoiding seemed a bit easier. As usual avoiding traps in real time is more fun.
A Prince of Persia game isn't complete without puzzles. So there're some puzzles in the game but don't worry they're very easy.

Rock music is gone in this game, this time it's pure Persian music. The music's magical charm is heart-touching, especially for those who like Persian music. This game's soundtrack has less tracks than Warrior Within's but they're all very good.

Horse carriages have been added in this game. You can control it with the assigned buttons for moving left and right. Though there are only two horse carriage sequences in the game but they're very good. During these sequences you'll have to take control of the carriage &amp; make sure that it doesn't crash. Enemies will try to get on your carriage so you'll have to fight them too at the same time.

Prince on a horse carriage

In this game the story continues from the previous game. This game's story is very related to both of the previous games. So if you haven't played them both, the story will not make any sense. The story is filled with twists &amp; turns &amp; shocks, saying anything about it will be a spoiler. But I can say that this story will totally indulge you in the game and at the end of this game the Prince's journey will finally be at an end.

Pros:

Good graphics (but it could have been better)

Very good gameplay

Good music

Great storyline

Much larger artwork gallery

Cons:

Short game (but it'll not feel short during the first play-through)

Amount of secondary weapons (weapons of enemies) has been decreased

Very few soundtracks

Brief review:

The third installment in the Prince of Persia series. In this game the story continues from Warrior within. Graphics, music, gameplay all are very good in this game. A new feature called 'speed kill' have been added in this game, which makes combat especially boss battles more dramatic/cinematic. Adding horse carriages is a good idea by Ubisoft. The Dark Prince's chain moves are very cool. These features makes this game the best in the Sands of Time trilogy.